USA > Connecticut > New London County > Old Lyme > The educational history of Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635-1935 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
9
Early Settlements, 1635-1667.
ments within the bounds of the Warwick deed. At the same time both parties accepted the Massachusetts court as qualified to give proper constitutional character to the proposed planta- tion.16 This commission of agreement was issued on March 3, 1636, to last one year, or until the lords and gentlemen at Saybrook should have made up their minds as to the form of permanent government they wished to establish.17 With this commission drawn up to the satisfaction of all, the westward movement was resumed. Permanent groups were soon estab- lished in Windsor, Springfield, Wethersfield and Hartford and on April 26, 1636, Ludlow and four others of the eight commissioners, coming together at Hartford, passed a few simple orders. Thus organized government began in Connecti- cut nearly two months before Hooker's party arrived.18
Quite evidently John Winthrop Jr. had also left Boston to join his settlers at Saybrook, for when Hooker left with his congregation late in the spring of 1636 to establish their set- tlement at Hartford, the elder Winthrop sent with Hooker let- ters and cattle under the special charge of Lieutenant Thomas Bull, to be delivered to his son at Saybrook.19 Winthrop was eager to push forward the plans for the building of the fort and the laying out of the future city, for that same year he ex- pected three hundred men from England. Two hundred of these men were to garrison the fort, fifty to cultivate the soil and fifty to build houses. In honor of its two noble patrons, Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke, both members of Par- liament under Charles I, the place was named Saybrook.
George Fenwick, one of the so-called patentees of the new
16. Ibid., pp. 170-171.
17. Ibid., pp. 320-321.
18. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, II, 78-80.
19. Winthrop writes: "Mr. Hooker went hence upon Tuesday the last of May by whom I wrote you. With that company viz. by Thos. Bull and a man of mine, I sent six cows, four steers and a bull. Will send this [letter] by the Rebecca to-gether with provisions. Mr. Fenwick of Gray's Inn (one of those whom employ you) hath written to you by Mr. Hooker and intends a month hence with my brother Peter to be with you. The gentlemen seem to be dis- couraged with the design here but you shall know more when they come to you." Winthrop, Journal, Appendix (Savage edition), I, 469.
IO
Educational History of Old Lyme.
colony and the only one who ever saw Saybrook, also arrived in Boston during the spring of that year and left on horseback with Peter Winthrop on April 27 for the upper river towns in Connecticut where he expected to embark on a shallop for Saybrook.2º Upon his arrival at Saybrook, Fenwick made a brief survey of the conditions of the colony and then returned to England to make more extensive plans for settlement. Meanwhile the land at the fort was laid out with care since it was expected to become the residence of great men and the center of business and wealth. Westward of the fort a square was laid out on which it was expected houses would be erected for Pym, Haselrig, Hampden and others. A square still far- ther west was reserved for public uses.
In this manner were the first towns of Connecticut settled. The commission of March 3, 1636, provided the first frame- work of government. Eight men conducted the administration of the upper river towns and at the expiration of the commis- sion on March 28, 1637, no attempt was made to choose a governor to succeed John Winthrop Jr. From this time until 1644 the Connecticut colony and the Saybrook settlement functioned separately except during the period of the Pequot War, in 1637, when they united for the common defense. In that year the first meeting of the general court was called and the inhabitants were instructed to meet in their respective towns for the election of committees to prepare for war.
When the English first came Connecticut was a vast wilder- ness. The hills were covered with a dense growth of fine trees -oak, chestnut, walnut, maple, beech, birch, ash and elm. There was a great variety of wild fruit and groundnuts while game and fish were abundant. The fur-bearing animals existed in great numbers and became the source of a considerable trade. The wildcat and wolf were numerous and the latter
20. "23 of the 4 month 1636. The Bachelor is to come to you next week with Mr. Pierce's goods and the lighter with some ordnances in Mr. Pierce's pinnace. Mr. Fenwick, my brother Peter-etc, set forth on horse back on the 27 of this month and will expect your shallop at the upper towns to carry them down the river and so will go in Mr. Pierce's pinnace to Long Island, Hudson River etc." Winthrop, History of New England, I, 470.
II
Early Settlements, 1635-1667.
destroyed sheep, calves and young cattle. The country was also abundant in savages." 21
There were four Indian settlements in the neighborhood of the English colony at Saybrook: one at the mouth of Oys- ter River; one at Obed's Hammock, near the mouth of the Pochang River; a third at Ayers Point; and a fourth on or near the Indian reservation at Chester. Before the English came these tribes were subject to the Pequots and were the source of great atrocities during the early settlement of the colony.22 The Mohegans and Pequots, at the same time, con- trolled all the land between the Connecticut and Narragan- sett rivers; and while Uncas, a rebel Pequot sachem, the leader of the Mohegans, sought the English settlers as his allies, Sassacus, the head sachem of the Pequots, sought their destruction. The constant attacks of the Pequots upon the English and the return attacks of the English and their Mo- hegan allies precipitated in 1637 the deadly Pequot War in which this ancient tribe was finally exterminated.
Saybrook Fort and Lyme shores witnessed many of the early atrocities of this war and benefited greatly by the years of peace which followed. As early as January 21, 1633, news had reached Massachusetts Bay from Plymouth that Captain Stone while putting in at the mouth of the Connecticut River, on his way to Virginia, was there cut off by the Pequots. Three of his men being gone ashore to kill fowl, a sachem with some of his men came aboard and stayed with Captain Stone until he fell asleep. The Indians then killed Stone and later his en- tire crew, after which they removed the supplies and burned the pinnace.23 The next year some Indians killed John Old- ham who had gone to trade at Block Island and in 1636 other Indians barbarously murdered a number of Dutch and Eng- lish traders on the Connecticut River. In all thirty men had been killed and a guard of defense became necessary.24
Trumbull, History of Connecticut, pp. 23-24.
22. Ibid., pp. 27-28.
23. Winthrop, History of New England, I, 146.
24. Trumbull, Compendium on the Indian Wars in New England, pp. 13, 14, 16, 18, 29.
I2
Educational History of Old Lyme.
The following winter Indians besieged Saybrook Fort for a period of weeks. They surrounded the fort in such numbers that the ordnances were used to drive them away. Later, after the return of Captain Endecott to Massachusetts, the Indians returned with such fury that Captain John Mason and twenty men were sent by the Connecticut colony to assist Lieutenant Gardiner in the defense of Saybrook.25 During the weeks of warfare which ensued the colonists showed great fortitude. They pressed a final retreat to a place near Southport where in the "Swamp Fight" the Pequots were annihilated. Those who survived became the slaves of Uncas, and Sassacus, after fleeing for refuge to the Mohawks, was beheaded.26
A period of comparative peace followed. After this conquest, in consequence of a favorable covenant and the gift of one hundred Pequots, Uncas became very important. A consider- able number of Indians collected around him so that he was , soon one of the principal sachems of New England. Conse- quently in 1640 he laid claim to all the extensive tract called the Mohegan or Pequot country, which he in turn sold to the Connecticut colony on September first of that year. He re- served for his use only those lands which were planted. In the years that followed all separate towns were purchased from Uncas-or his successors-and the people were required to defend him and to make new concessions and gifts to him.27
The year 1638 brought many new settlers to New Eng- land. During the summer twenty ships arrived bringing at least three thousand persons who were forced to seek out new plantations.28 In the summer of 1639 three ships also arrived at Quinnipiac. These were probably the first and last that came from London to New Haven.29 They proceeded to the
25. "February 10, 1637 Capt. Underhill was sent to Saybrook with twenty men to keep the fort, both in respect to the Indians and the Dutch who gave cause of suspicion that they had some design upon it. The men were sent at the charge of the men at Saybrook and lent by order of the council here for fear that any advantage should be taken by the adverse party through the weakness of the place." Winthrop, History of New England, I, 259.
26. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, II, 92-93.
27. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, p. 113.
28. Winthrop, History of New England, I, 322. 29. Ibid., p. 368.
I3
Early Settlements, 1635-1667.
mouth of the Connecticut River under the direction of Colo- nel George Fenwick, who, together with Lady Fenwick, sev- eral gentlemen, a number of servants and some laborers, was returning to aid in the further development of the Saybrook settlement. A distinct civil government was soon established through which Colonel Fenwick superintended and governed the inhabitants until December 1644. Under his direction the colony lost much of its military character and gradually grew into a settlement but remained without church organization until 1646.
Among the principal planters were Thomas Peters, the first minister in the plantation, Captain Gardiner, Thomas Leffing- well, Thomas Tracy, Captain John Mason and such others as the Huntingtons, Baldwins, Raynolds, Backuses, Blisses, Wa- termans, Hides, Posts and Smiths.3º These original settlers like others in the state were Puritans and had their part in peopling the state with Nonconformists.31 For Lady Fenwick, life in America offered little. She had few possible associates. Mrs. John Winthrop Jr. and her sister Mrs. Lake lived on Fisher's Island leaving Mrs. Mathew Griswold and Colonel Fenwick's two sisters, one of whom married Richard Ely, la- ter of Lyme, as the only women of her class.
Meanwhile, since conditions in England further delayed the coming of Colonel Fenwick's associates and their families, Lion Gardiner, discouraged by the prospects, left for an island at the east end of Long Island, later known as Gardiner's Island.
With the expiration of the commission in 1636, the leaders of the Connecticut colony, under the stimulation of Hooker, felt that the time had come when it was necessary to bind the inhabitants of the river towns in some form of common loyalty through a central government. The general court, therefore, in 1638, set about framing such a government and the whole was adopted January 14, 1639. This "combination" contain- ing all the essentials of self-government was brought into be- ing as a confirmation of an already established system, by a
30. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, pp. 106-110.
31. Gates, Saybrook at the Mouth of the Connecticut River, pp. 17-48.
I4 Educational History of Old Lyme.
government which had functioned since 1636.32 Under these Fundamental Orders the form and spirit of life in the Con- necticut colony, between 1639 and 1662, were molded and protected. These Fundamental Orders further provided the governmental status necessary for membership in the New England Confederation which was finally formed for mutual protection in 1643.
In 1639 Colonel Fenwick had agreed to this "Treaty of Combination" in so far as the fort at Saybrook and the land about it were concerned, but the question of boundaries and jurisdiction was left open. Connecticut offered to help finan- cially in the repair and upkeep of the fort and in 1643 made Fenwick a freeman and magistrate of the colony. Finally, on December 5, 1644, Fenwick submitted to continuous requests and entered into a formal agreement according to which Con- necticut allowed Fenwick certain duties on goods, furs and livestock passing out of the mouth of the river. He in return made over the fort and the land, but not the jurisdiction, which he could not convey, to the use of the people of the colony to be enjoyed by them forever.33 Fenwick promised to transfer also all the territory named in the Warwick deed, ly- ing between the Connecticut River and the "Narragansett River" "if it came into his power."
By this agreement the fort and all appurtenances at Say- brook Point, together with all lands on the Connecticut River, went to the Connecticut colony for sixteen hundred pounds. All such lands as were not disposed of were to be divided by a committee of five, of which George Fenwick was to be a per- manent member. Fenwick was to have the use of all the hous- ing at the fort for ten years, together with the wharf, barns, meadows and Six Mile Island on the east side of the river. The contract further included all revenue from corn and meal, biscuits, cattle, hogs, beaver and other goods passing out of the river. By a second agreement in 1646 he was to re- ceive 180 pounds per year and other special revenue for a pe- riod of ten years.34
32. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, II, 100-102.
33. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, p. 149. 34. Ibid., p. 150.
15
Early Settlements, 1635-1667.
In 1645, following the death of Lady Fenwick and their infant daughter, Colonel Fenwick returned to England a dis- heartened man, leaving the management of his business affairs in the hands of his long-time friend, Mathew Griswold. He reëntered public life and lived until 1657, but during these continuous years of residence in England failed to discover any copy of the Warwick patent, so urgently desired by the Connecticut colony. His going terminated all plans for an aristocratic republic of lords and gentlemen at Saybrook Point and opened the way for further settlement.35 At once new families, and new trade interests from Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, brought new vigor into the Saybrook set- tlement and safeguarded for the future the culture and forti- tude of its original settlers.
With the consolidation of the two colonies Saybrook be- came one of the towns in the Connecticut colony and benefited by its laws. Soon after this consolidation, in the absence of a minister, following the return of the Rev. Thomas Peters to England, James Fitch came from Hartford to the pastoral charge of Saybrook, bringing a following of families with him. Mr. Fitch had been ordained by Mr. Hooker and re- flected his training in political as well as in religious affairs. Under his leadership the Saybrook settlement grew in spirit and in numbers. The town then extended eastward five miles beyond the river and from the mouth northward six miles in- cluding a considerable part of the later town of Lyme. Cap- tain John Mason and Mathew Griswold were among its leaders in all political affairs. 36
The period from 1646 to 1662 was one of population in- crease, land division and violent Indian attacks. Throughout the colony the Indians were causing alarm. Actual conditions in Saybrook before 1667 are clouded by the absence of rec- ords but some facts of significance are to be found.
35. "Geo. Fenwick Esq. would surely deserve more consideration than he has received from the writers about our country. All are negligent of one of the principal fathers of Connecticut. This probably resulted from his return to England and there ending his days in high office." Winthrop, History of New England, I, 368 (note by Savage).
36. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, pp. 107-108.
I6
Educational History of Old Lyme.
The Connecticut colony, at this time, embraced the towns of Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, Stratfield, Saybrook, Fairfield, Southampton and Farmington. New Haven colony included New Haven, Guilford, Milford, Southold, Stam- ford and Branford. On their western boundary the Dutch were causing constant unrest through their determination to hold fast to their claims to the territory "west of the Great River." Meanwhile the Narragansetts and their allies, the Nehanticks, continued their attacks upon the English in the eastern area. The Narragansetts under Miantinomo took up the cause of the banished Pequots and after the elimination of Miantinomo by Uncas in 1643 this cause became even more embittered. In 1657, as a culmination of violent warfare, the. Narragansetts surrounded Uncas in his fort near Norwich and held him there to starve. When the extremity of the situa- tion was upon him one of his runners risked the guard and went with all speed to the fort at Saybrook advising Captain Mason of the situation and the precarious condition that would follow the possible defeat of the Mohegans. Thomas Leffing- well thereupon volunteered to attempt to reach Uncas with a canoe-load of provisions. He paddled from Saybrook Fort to the Thames River with the aid of his Indian guide and under cover of darkness reached the fort in Norwich. The Narra- gansetts were later disbanded.
Tradition tells that Thomas Leffingwell's reward was a deed from Uncas of a tract of land equivalent to the present town of Norwich. In any event Uncas went to Saybrook in 1659 and in exchange for seventy pounds gave the proprie- tors a deed to a tract of land nine miles square in the Mohe- gan country. The following spring Captain John Mason, Rev. James Fitch, Thomas Leffingwell, Mr. Huntington and a group of followers left Saybrook to establish a settlement on this grant.
Further expansion under the leadership of Mathew Gris- wold was taking place nearer the original settlement at Say- brook where as early as 1654 the population had increased to fifty-three taxable persons and land outside the fort and pali- sade had been taken over for cultivation. The settlers were
AR. Simon
I7
Early Settlements, 1635-1667.
still, however, greatly hampered by the infertility of the soil and made plans to meet their needs through two successive divisions of the common lands. The dates of these divisions are not available but numerous references to them are to be found in the existing early deeds of the town. One record of particular interest is entitled "Re-Quarters in Saybrook and Division of the Land." This bears no date but is included among the earliest of the remaining records. From this we learn that the inhabitants of Saybrook, settled upon a small neck of land, later found themselves so straitened and disabled in circumstances as to be unable to provide a comfortable sub- sistence for themselves. Thereupon, after mature considera- tion they chose a committee of five men, William Hide, Wil- c.f. liam Pratt, Thomas Tracy, John Clark and Mathew Gris- wold, who were ordered and empowered by the town to make a survey of the outlands to the utmost extent of the grant and to divide these lands into several quarters with such an estate put upon them as had been agreed, namely, three thousand pounds. Thereby every person might have a free choice for his own encouragement and might increase not only his own subsistence but that of the entire group. After the completion of this survey the committee divided all the remaining out- lands into three quarters: first, the quarter of the Oyster River; second, the quarter of the Eight Mile Meadow; and third, "the quarter on the east side of the River.">37
From these records it appears that this special committee laid out from the remaining common lands three quarters or subdivisions and that the proprietors of Saybrook drew lots and in their turn chose land most attractive to them and in an amount determined by their former holdings. It is quite evi- dent also that the groups, going into each of the three quar- ters for permanent settlement, had gathered around promi- nent men in the town. It is also clear that other proprietors, not interested in new homesites, selected lots for investment or exchange, while still another group divided their interests and took smaller grants in two of the available subdivisions. Many colonists whose names appear in the land records of
37. Saybrook Land Records, 1666, p. 93.
I8
Educational History of Old Lyme.
Saybrook as holders of land "on the east side of the river" were still listed as inhabitants of Saybrook in 1672. Some of these were Widow Zachery Sanford, William Beaumont, John Westall, Thomas Dunk, Nicholas Jennings and Hugh Lees.38
That there was a keen interest in the land on the "east side of the river" is shown by the number of deeds issued. These included the names of Thomas Leffingwell, John Lay, Mor- gan Bowers, Henry Champion, John Westall, John Lory, Thomas Dunk, John Olmsted, Thomas Bliss, Christopher Huntington, Joseph Jaret and Joseph Ingraham. Our inter- est follows them and their leader in the development of this new quarter, later to become Lyme, and to that part of Lyme which in 1855 separated to form the new town of Old Lyme.
In 1639 Mathew Griswold, the first settler, frequently re- ferred to in the history of Saybrook, came with his brother from Kenilworth, England. He married Annah Wolcott, daughter- of the first Henry Wolcott of Windsor and soon came to settle in Saybrook, first as the business agent of George Fenwick and later as one of its magistrates.39 It is apparent that these two men were close friends and that Mathew Griswold had early expressed a marked preference for land "on the east side of the river" for, in 1645, before returning to England, George Fenwick gave to him a large tract of land in that quarter. In 1667 when the "east side of the river" became an incorporated town of some thirty proprietors, Mathew Gris- wold, the political leader of this new group, named the town Lyme, presumably for his home, Lyme Regis, in England. To his private estate he gave the name of Black Hall.40
Keen interest surrounds the names of these first proprie- tors. It is understood that they were a rather homogeneous
38. Saybrook Land Records, 1666, p. 93.
39. Mathew Griswold must have been a stonemason of some ability if this reference is true. "The monument of Lady Fenwick is constructed of a greyish red sandstone-the color of the Portland quarries. . . . This tomb is supposed to have been the workmanship of Mathew Griswold to whose skill other monu- mental tablets of the day have been attributed." Caulkins, History of New London, pp. 173-174.
40. Allyn, Griswolds, Traditions and Reminiscences of Black Hall, pp. 1-20.
19
Early Settlements, 1635-1667.
group, of more than average financial and educational advan- tage; coming originally from closely adjacent towns in Eng- land and intimately connected with the original proprietors of Saybrook. In religion they were Puritans descended in part from the English gentry, the yeomanry and the farmer class. In many instances they belonged to the second generation of Saybrook settlers. Journeymen were few among them.41 The list of these first proprietors, as it appears in the historical ref- erences to the town of Lyme, usually includes the names of nine or ten families of comparatively continuous residence such as the Griswolds, Lees, Lays, Marvins, Champions, Lords, Elys, Noyeses, De Wolfes and Brockways. The other twenty proprietors necessary to complete the colony's requirements for incorporation are not so easily listed. An exhaustive study of the Saybrook Land Records of this period is suggestive but in no sense conclusive.42
The earliest deeds in the records of "Saybrook Lands on the east side of the river" bear no dates previous to 1660. Some of these deeds included houses and outbuildings while others were for land only. These records also give the names and holdings of many of the early landowners in Lyme and suggest the manner in which the land was originally set off but do not of necessity refer to persons who were listed among the original proprietors of the town.43 The home lots of many of the first settlers in the Black Hall and Duck River area are shown to have included approximately ten acres of land, to which were added upland and meadow according to the estate of the individual lot holder. Some holdings were made up of property purchased from landholders who had elected to choose land on the east side of the river as a part of their first division allotment. In some few instances land so transferred
41. Mathew and Reinold Marvin came to Hartford with the Rev. Mr. Hooker from Essex, England. Mathew Marvin later went to Norwalk and Reinold to Saybrook where his name appears among the early settlers of that place. Marvin, Descendants of Reinold and Matthew Marvin, 1635-1904, pp. 9-29.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.